Elizabeth Cady Stanton SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE Article: "Shall Women Ride the Bicycle?" [n.d.] Think women [?] Bicycle? What shall they wear? Shall the saints of the Wheel ride on Sunday? More thought is expended just now on the Bicycle than on any other popular amusement The first solemn question propounded was, shall women be permitted to enjoy this mode of locomotion While prudes were discussing this point, lo! the women without consulting their prejudices, rode, & rode well, But carpers said, They do not look pretty, they are not graceful, [?] 2 Well, many women we meet in the ordinary walks of life are neither pretty nor graceful Shall they therefore be sequestered from public view? No woman could look worse on a wheel than a man with flying coat tails, bent at an angle of forty five degrees. The first point settled that they will ride. The next is what shall they wear. This too with their usual good sense, they will decide for themselves, by finding what is best adapted to the new situation, or with no doubt in time 3 look pretty or graceful in my stockings, knickerbockers tight-fitting sack, military cap & short hair, like a tiny vessel in a storm with all sails reefed. They will, as an object lesson, illustrate a great natural law, that woman is a bifurcated animal, & does not run as she seems to the ordinary observer, like a churn on castors, a pyramid in shape from waist downwards. A being with two legs, in free motion, must of necessity have bifurcated garments. This revelation of legs 4 has been a great shock to some sensitive souls, & the debates on the question what women should wear have been as hysterical, as in the first point, should she be permitted to ride atall. As she decided the first for herself, & defiantly rode off in the face of her opponents, so she will decide the second point, & wear what she pleases, gradually making changes in dress & Wheels, as added comfort & convenience demand, & popular prejudices must yield her undisputed sway, in this new field of activity, 5 just as they have surrendered other strongholds from time to time in the past. The Bicycle will be a great development to women in many ways. It will strengthen their muscles, steady their nerves, & make them cautious courageous, self reliant, & increase their [practical] common sense, if they learn as they should do, to keep their own Wheels in order, & how to repair them in emergencies. Again the Wheel being preeminently a rational amusement, [the sexes] 6 young men & women will always go in crowds together, [thus] & have an elevating social influence over each other. The violence & danger of most [of boys] outdoor sports have practically excluded girls, but the Wheel so safe & exhilirating & has at last made it possible for girls to enjoy with their brothers an amusement in the open air where the courtesies of life are continually called into requisition. To sum up, I would say, let women ride, & wear what they find best adapted to that exercise. If some prefer the full skirts flying in the wind 7 entangled in the wheels let them run the risk of their folly; -- if others prefer bloomers, let them enjoy their choice; -- if others prefer knickerbockers leave them in peace. The right of individual conscience & judgment is the foundation of the Protestant religion & republican government. A sound priniple on which to settle all questions great & small. Should the Saints of the Wheel ride on Sunday is another question more pressing on our consideration 8 On the above principle let the riders decide for themselves. If they prefer a ten miles ride in the open air to the close atmosphere of a church, or an easy chair at their own fireside perusing the Sunday [Sun] paper, I say go on the Wheel by all means. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. No rational pleasure should be forbidden on that day. Young men & women confined in schools & workshops during the week [would] must appreciate a day of freedom in such exhilarating exercise 9 in the open air. The rational idea of Sunday is simply a day of rest & recreation, a change from the regular routine [of] & employments, of our every day working world. To make it a day of self denial & restraint, set aside for the special worship of the Great Creator of the Universe is an idea too puerile & irrational for this stage of human development. Emerson has well said, "Work is Worship." The Saints of the Wheel can serve God as well on a fine road in the open air, as within 10 four walls intoning a church service, in the role of "miserable sinners" If you have had no time to ride during six days, by all means go forth on the seventh, Take your wife, your daughter & your maid servant to enjoy nature in all her grandeur & beauty, the balmy air & fleecy clouds, the mountains & rivers, the fruits & flowers & with the birds sing the praises of the Creator in that temple not made with hands eternal in the Heavens, where that melancholy human wail, "Good 11 Lord deliver us," will never more reach your ears. Elizabeth Cady Stanton 26, West 61, New York About the Bicycle Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.